Bug FAQBottletail
Olpogastra lugubris · Order: Odonata · Family: Libellulidae
The slender bottletail dragonfly is about 56 mm long with a wingspan of roughly 84 mm. It has an olive thorax with yellow spots, long yellow-washed wings, and a long abdomen marked by narrow yellow bands and a narrow waist. It lives near rivers, floodplains, streams and lakes that have sedges or reeds.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
The dragonfly’s body is long and slender with narrow yellow bands on the abdomen and a narrow waist; the thorax is olive with yellow spots and the wings are long and yellow-washed.
Source: Wikipedia
Size
Length is about 56 mm and wingspan about 84 mm.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it lives
Found in rivers, floodplains, streams and lakes that have sedges or reeds.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it comes from
It is widespread across sub-Saharan Africa, occurring in many countries from Benin and Ghana to South Africa and Tanzania.
Source: Wikipedia
Lookalikes
Olpogastra lugubris is the only species in its genus.
Source: Wikipedia
More photos
Same family (Libellulidae)
Sources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olpogastra
Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · Wikipedia
Text written 2026-10-23 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-23.